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First tenders for 10 regional airports in first quarter of 2020

By A. Tsimplakis
[email protected] 

The relevant shipping ministry and Greece’s privatization agency (HRADF) are reportedly ready to commence the process leading to an international tender for 10 regional ports around the country, with latter being state-run but whose shares are held by the agency.

According to reports, the first tender will be declared in the first four months of 2020, with the extreme northeast port of Alexandroupolis being the first to go on the selling block.

Additionally, as opposed to the previous leftist SYRIZA government, its successor, the current center-right Mitsotakis government will offer a full concession, instead of concessions for specific port services. The former is judged as increasing investors’ interest and subsequent offers.

Interest, at least according to sources, has also been expressed for the port authorities of Kavala, in northern Greece, and Igoumenitsa, in the northwest corner of the country on the Ionian Sea. Volos and Crete’s main port of Irakleio (Heraklion) follow.

Alexandroupolis has over the recent period generated attention by US interests, given that the site is on an east-west natgas pipeline route, adjacent to an offshore LNG platform being built, and also entails possible military importance.

A visit days ago by the Japanese ambassador to Greece to Alexandroupolis also generated speculation of Japanese interest in the mostly under-developed port.

Speculation has also emerged of Chinese and Israeli interest in the northern Greece ports.

Shanghai-based and state-affiliated Cosco, a sea transport and ports operating giant, already controls the Piraeus Port Authority with a long-term concession. Piraeus is the biggest and busiest port in Greece, and under Chinese management since 2016 has dramatically increased its container traffic.

Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Yossi Amrani, also met with Shipping Minister Yannis Plakiotakis this week, with strategic bilateral cooperation in the sectors of shipping and ports dominating discussions.

Beyond the 10 regional ports up for privatization – after Piraeus and Thessaloniki – the ministry also allocated 4.4 million euros for repairs to another 34 lesser ports and harbors around Greece, which has the EU’s longest coastline.